1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of executing a clipboard by which copy, cut, and paste operations are implemented in various editing programs, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method of executing a multi-clipboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
In WINDOWS operating systems, there is a special memory resource, a clipboard, for application programs. The clipboard stores a copy of data that was copied or cut from a current text, so that a user can paste the copy to the current or another text.
The clipboard is a region in a memory used by WINDOWS for temporary storage when data is copied or pasted from a program to another. In a WINDOWS or APPLE MACINTOSH operating system, the clipboard can be used to copy data from a program to another. For example, the clipboard is used to implement a cut, copy, or paste operation in a WINDOWS application such as a word processor or EXCEL.
A clipboard displayer displays data that was copied or cut from an application program. Unless the user updates the clipboard by copying or cutting new data or loses the latest copied or cut data by turning off a computer, without saving the latest copied or cut data in the clipboard as a file, the user can paste the latest copied or cut data in the clipboard in another program many times.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system 100 supporting a clipboard, according to related art.
The computer system 100 includes a CPU 110, a storage medium 120 such as hard discs or read only memory (ROMs), an output device 130 such as a monitor, an input device 140 such as a keyboard or mouse, and a main memory 150 such as random access memory (RAMs).
The main memory 150 loads an operating system program 151 that controls the whole computer system to execute application programs, a program 152 which executes a clipboard function, and a plurality of application programs 153, 154, and 155.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure of storing data in the program 152.
First, a user activates an application program on which data can be edited in step S210.
Next, the user highlights data on the activated application program in step S220.
Thereafter, the user selects a copy or cut command in the activated application program in step S230. For example, selecting the copy or cut command may involve selecting copy or cut in a toolbar of the activated application program, selecting a copy or cut command item in a dialogue box that pops up when a right button of a mouse is clicked, or using copy or cut softkeys, e.g., pressing Ctrl+C or Ctrl+X.
Whether data has been highlighted is determined in step S240. If data has been highlighted, the highlighted data is stored in the program 152 in step S250, irrespective of whether other data has already been stored in the program 152.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure of pasting data stored in the program 152 to another part of the activated application program or to another application program.
First, the user activates an application program in step S310.
Next, the user selects a paste command in the activated application program in step S320. For example, selecting the paste command may involve selecting paste in the toolbar of the activated application program, selecting a paste command item in the dialogue box that pops up when the right button of the mouse is clicked, or using paste softkeys, e.g., pressing Ctrl+V.
Thereafter, whether data has been stored in the program 152 is determined in step S330.
If data has been stored in the program 152, the data is pasted to a current cursor position or a highlighted position in step S340.
The latest copied or cut data can be pasted to any desired location, as many times as possible, until new data is stored in the program 152.
If new data is copied or cut, previously copied or cut data is replaced by new data. Thus, only the new data is stored in the program 152 and can be pasted.
In order to paste the previously copied or cut data, it is necessary to copy or cut the previously copied or cut data again and store it as new data in the program 152.
As describe above, the latest copied or cut data can be pasted many times, which makes it possible to avoid repetitive input operations of the same data. However, if new data is copied or cut, the previously copied or cut data is replaced by the new data. Thus, only the latest copied or cut data remains in the clipboard. If there is a plurality of sets of repetitive data to be copied or cut, a user has to repeat copy or cut and paste operations.
Korean Patent Application No. 1998-34093, titled “Computer system having a plurality of hot keys for a multi-clipboard function and operation method”, discloses a computer system having hot keys for a multi-clipboard function. Such computer system includes a plurality of hot keys corresponding to different information stored in a clipboard of a program and stores at least one kind of information selected from the program in a storage medium using hot keys corresponding to the selected information. Thus, when the user desires to copy or cut the selected information, the selected information in the storage medium is transmitted from program to program by using hot keys. This invention has a problem in respect to a user interface in which the user must memorize the hot keys corresponding to the selected information or search for the location of the selected information in the storage medium.
Korean Patent Application No. 1999-48925, titled “Computer system having a multi-clipboard”, discloses a computer system having a multi-clipboard. The multi-clipboard includes a plurality of clipboards and a clipboard header having data information about the plurality of clipboards. This system must include a user interface or a keyboard button to select data and activate a multi-clipboard displayer having a plurality of display regions to show copied or cut data. In other words, an additional means for operating hardware or software is required to execute a multi-clipboard function.